Harvey talks ASU pledge

Hod Rabino

10/21/2013

Prior to his Arizona State official visit Cal commit Jalen Harvey probably had no idea that he was going to change his pledge, but by the end of his Tempe trip the El Cerrito, Calif. standout knew that he was going to be a member of the Sun Devils' 2014 recruiting class and made his decision known Monday.

"I came for a (unofficial visit) in the spring and it was really different," Harvey said. "This time I really got to meet a lot of people, see the whole campus and really got shown around. The whole trip was so enjoyable. I cannot even name all the fun stuff I did. Everything was great.

"I loved the academics there, the campus, the dorms everything was great. I really liked how much attention they put on academics because they make sure you graduate. I was hosted by Ronald Lewis and he told me that the coaches are upfront with you and when it's time to come down here you need to what you need to do."

Naturally one of the highlights of the weekend for Harvey was attending Arizona State's 53-24 win over Washington, as ASU's newest pledge was impressed with the Sun Devils' style of play.

"I was really looking forward to seeing (wide receiver) Jaelen Strong play and it was kind of a bummer to see him get injured," Harvey commented. "But other than that the offense played great. They know how to play really fast but also be patient so they don't make too many mistakes. When you have a good running game, it's all about patience. Some teams play fast tempo wise and make mistakes, but they (ASU) played fast and made just a few mistakes."

Harvey was part of what was one of the biggest in-season recruiting weekends in recent ASU memory, with a handful of four and five-star players in attendance. One of those prospects, Arizona State quarterback commit Manny Wilkins has been responsible for assembling some of the recruits who attended the game, and Harvey talked about the signal caller's role in his recruitment.

"Me and Manny have a good relationship," Harvey described. "We went to some camps together and I really go to know him. He's a good guy and he told me a lot of good things about ASU."

A source close to Harvey's recruitment indicated that he told the ASU staff before the end of the visit that he was going to decommit from California in favor of Arizona State. In our interview, Harvey said that it wasn't a hard decision to make and that there was one specific reason that was significant in his resolution.

"It wasn't because of their team or anything like that," Harvey said. "It's because they wanted me to score higher on my SAT and I'm already NCAA eligible for other teams. So that was something that was overwhelming me and I didn't want to stress myself out. So when I told that to the Cal coaches they understood.

"It was nice to be committed to a school close to home, but Arizona State isn't even that far by plane and when I was there it felt like home. Man, when I was here I didn't even want to go home. I wanted to stay out there."

The 6-0 175-pound Jalen Harvey said that the ASU coaches can see him playing either wide receiver or boundary safety and that he had no preference of which side of the ball to play at.

"They kept on telling me all the time how versatile I was," Harvey said. "I'm not trying to toot my own horn, but that is what they were telling me. They told me I can do anything so I will do what is best for the team. They can see me at wide receiver, strong safety, and punt returner…

"They are a quick team that likes to blitz a lot, and I'm a quick player who also likes to blitz a lot and bring pressure. I need to get faster but I have no problem shaking somebody off if I need to. I'm a scrappy player with lots and lots of energy."

Harvey said that he had no intentions to visit other schools. His high school teammate, linebacker D.J. Calhoun, was another official visitor for ASU last weekend and when Harvey was asked if he was now going to try and convince Calhoun to join the ranks in Tempe, Harvey simply replied: "ASAP."